University of Plymouth PEARL https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk 04 University of Plymouth Research Theses 01 Research Theses Main Collection 2020 Black Male Representations in Non-Urban Settings in The UK Turner, Nathaniel http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/15777 University of Plymouth All content in PEARL is protected by copyright law. Author manuscripts are made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document. In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher or author. Copyright Statement This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author's prior consent. BLACK MALE REPRESENTATIONS IN NON-URBAN SETTINGS IN THE UK by NATHANIEL TURNER A thesis submitted to the University of Plymouth in partial fulfilment for the degree of RESEARCH MASTERS School of Humanities and Performing Arts February 2020 ii Acknowledgements I would firstly like to thank Dr Victor Ramirez Ladron De Guevara (University of Plymouth) and Dr Lee Miller. Thank you for your guidance and support throughout this research process. I feel I have developed not only as a researcher but also as a person through this journey and I could not have better supervisors to steer me in the right direction when I lost my way. I would also like to express my gratitude to my partner Sophia, for her constant encouragement, support and patience throughout the writing-up stage of my thesis. Thank you. Nathaniel Turner, University of Plymouth iii Author's Signed Declaration At no time during the registration for the degree of Research Masters has the author been registered for any other University award without prior agreement of the Doctoral College Quality Sub-Committee. Work submitted for this research degree at the University of Plymouth has not formed part of any other degree either at the University of Plymouth or at another establishment. This study was financed with the aid of a studentship form of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). A programme of advanced study was undertaken, which included taught modules including MAPR 700- Researching Performance, MARE 700- Researching in the Arts and Humanities. Relevant seminars and conferences were regularly attended at which work was often presented. Research presentations during this programme of study include: Pep Talk October 2016 ‘as the consumption of digital stimuli increase how does this affect the position of the Black male’ University of Plymouth Pep Talk November 2017 ‘Black male representation in popular culture’ University of Plymouth Word count of main body of thesis: 23,800 words Signed N. Turner Date:27/03/20 iv Abstract Black Male Representations In Non-Urban Settings In The UK NATHANIEL TURNER Inspired by Frantz Fanon’s assertion ‘the Black man has no ontological resistance in the eyes of the White man’ (Fanon,1982:110) this research project analyses the ways in which representation has affected the performativity of Black masculinity in non-urban settings in the UK. Framed by a Practice as Research methodology, this project utilises auto-biographic as well as auto-ethnographic methods aiming to construct alternative Black masculinity narratives which can counter hegemonic approaches in both academic and digital platforms. This work examines my own lived experience in a city with a low ethnic diversity in order to explore the ways in which Black masculinity can be thought/lived/acted upon differently to other urban and more ethnically diverse locations. Finally, this work also discusses the role that education has had in the creation of “Blackness,” from colonialism to the representations that are currently present in popular culture, and question why those representations are not always interrogated/embraced in places of low ethnic diversity. Working within a Practice as Research framework this submission will include both a written thesis as well as digital performance. v Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter One: Race and Biology 15 Creation of Race within The West 15 1.2 Post Colonialism and The Black Mindset 17 1.3 Race in Practice 25 Chapter Two: Race and Black Men in the Media 34 2.1 Race and Aesthetics in Print Media 35 2.2 Race in Film 39 2.3 Black Men and Women 50 2.4 Black Man Relationality in Practice 54 Chapter Three: Intersectionality 60 Conclusion 78 Bibliography 84 Appendices vi List of Figures Figure 1-Robin Nelson’s (2006) Model for Practice as Research 11 Table 1-Summary of Practice 14 Figure 2.1- What Colour Do You See performance (2015) 28 Figure 2.2 What Colour Do You See performance (2015) 28 Figure 1.1 Advert H&M Campaign ‘City Explorers’ (2018) 36 Figure 3.2 Advert H&M Campaign ‘City Explorers’ (2018) 36 Figure 3.3 Advert H&M ‘Coolest Monkey In the Jungle (2018) 38 Figure 4.1: Welcome To My City performance (2017) 76 Figure 4.2 Welcome To My City performance (2017) 77 vii Introduction This project aims to develop an understanding of my own position within the context of Black masculinity in a location of low ethnic diversity by using Practice as Research, utilising an autobiographic and autoethnographic methodological approach. With the creation of performances using practice as research, this work also examines the influence and the effect of mediated representation (and its concomitant colonialism) on the ontology of Black men with particular focus on contemporary Britain. Informed by my lived experiences growing up in Britain in both an ethnically diverse location such as Wolverhampton, In the west midlands and a place of low ethnic diversity, Ivybridge, located in the south west of England, where I attended secondary school, this thesis will discuss my treatment in both locations to explore the role that mass media has had on my own negotiation of race. The origins of this project began with myself not being able to ‘see’ my own race. I grew up listening to rap music and enjoying music videos from both British grime artists and American rap and hip-hop artists, and even though these art forms were mostly dominated by Black men their race was unimportant to me. I was not familiar with seeing Black men on my television screens outside these forms but even during my stage of racial naivety, I observed in films and television, outside music, that Black men were presented as gangsters or “thugs”. When looking at these figures, I struggled to find Black men that I could identify with, as I was not able to see on screen a Black character or role, I could see myself in. So, this led to the unconscious internalisation of the idea that I was not 1 “Black” as I did not match up to the mass media representations that were visible at the time. I began to see myself as “Black” because I was not white, not part of the dominant population that were seen in positions of power on my television screen. This influence on my upbringing highlights the importance of representation on the Black male psyche though it should be made clear that the images that I was seeing on screen were constructed with the political bias of the dominant white culture. Charles Husband states that: In Britain we have a variety of mass media operations which are dominated by white interest through ownership, staffing and the product that they produce. This would not be a matter for concern were it not that also in Britain there is a significant black population […] The mass media play a significant part in sustaining the values and defining the immediate concerns of society. The media provide a perspective from which we view our world and it is the fact that they provide a ‘white’ perspective for interpreting events in a multiracial Britain that demands our attention, and action. (Husband, 1975: 15) To reflect on this quote, I point to the age of Husband’s work in relation to mediated representation and throughout this thesis I argue the relevance of older research still being applicable in current discussions regarding race relations in lesser ethnic diverse locations- as it could be reasoned that there has not been a large amount of change between the writing of this quote and the present. This can be seen in relation to my lived experience but also in the lack of investment of presenting race in any other way besides an objective Black experience. Bearing in mind the focus on the ‘white’ perspective there is no surprise that the media has reaffirmed the dominant cultures’ prejudices toward a growing Black population in Britain. An example of this is throughout the late 1960s and early 2 1970s the main site for coverage of Blackness on mainstream media was that Black immigration was a threat to the dominant culture. This emphasising the social issues at the time where in places such as Birmingham (1981) and Liverpool (Toxeth Riots 1981), race riots and racial aggravated attacks occurred. It was at this time there was a surge of immigration of British passport holders from East Africa and though these people were holders of such passports, the threat of Black people made way for the labour government to rush through the 1968 Commonwealth Immigration Act, ‘an act specifically designed to discriminate against the entry of Black individuals to Britain’ (Husband, 1975:17). I highlight the irony that is apparent in looking at these events, that is, that British culture by definition is a hybridised landscape made up from many different cultures appropriated without reference to their cultural vernacular.